I’m trying to get visible updates onto the site every day, but it’s going a little bit slow.  I’m hoping some guest bloggers will surface to share some of their information and stories 🙂  So, first, I want to ask anyone who’s interested in sharing anything (your story, what you do for your symptoms, info you’ve come across, your experiences with social effects…anything), to send an email to info at projectfibro dot com.  Any family members, friends, or anyone with info on the condition are welcomed too.  I’m going to see if my mom would like to write something up, since she’s been around through my whole process, and being a nurse, she may be able to offer up some worthwhile words.  I know a big struggle for those with fibro, is gaining the understanding of friends and family, due to the lack of aesthetic decline and anything beyond a brain scan diagnosing Fibromyalgia, specifically (not that a brain scan can even do that at this point, but it may be the only current option to show the differences in the brain’s response to pain, as well as the lack of certain chemicals).   You’ve got all of your blood work, scans, tests and procedures to show, through science, that you can be diagnosed with conditions that are essentially symptoms of fibromyalgia, but that’s often “not enough”.  My opinion is that it’s all about approach.  I’m not too “loud and proud” about anything in my life, because to me, I just “am”.  For me, it’s worked and people figure things out in due time.  Anyway, I’ll get onto the subject of the social aspect …which I think are HUGE, and do affect the intensity of some symptoms…. stress will do that to you (scientifically proven 😉 ) in another post .  Point is, it doesn’t hurt to see support from outside parties.   I’d love guest bloggers of any kind.  

On to some updates… many of the current pages are incomplete, but I haven’t forgotten about them.  I’m taking things as they come and sort of peppering tidbits throughout the site.  I have a question box that I’ll hopefully install by the end of the night.  It will allow visitors to ask a question to an actual doctor via Just Answer.  My hopes are that it helps to ease some minds to know that this option is available.  

I posted on twitter that I’ve forgotten a lot of my daily symptoms.  It seems that after you’ve experienced anything for a long period of time, it gets to the point where you almost “don’t know any better”.  It’s our body’s way of adapting and is something I definitely appreciate.  I know that this is possible for me because my symptoms (from day to day) tend to be a bit milder than others at this point, after having found a regimen that works well for me, while being on very few medications.  Granted, I have semi-frequent off days, I don’t need to count on feeling like total sh** every day 😉 .   However, I’ve been tapping into them a bit more lately and using them as good ammunition to figure out methods of treatment to ease the issues, and correlating what I’m already doing as an explanation as to why that particular symptom has eased up throughout my experimenting.  As I’ve mentioned, it certainly didn’t used to be this way for me (I believe I was bed-bound for about a year, missing the final semester of my senior year in high school), I’ve just found things that work.  

One thing I have a lot of issues with is GERD.  Some days, all I have to do is drink water and it feels like I’ve transformed into a fire breathing dragon.  It has that domino effect of setting off a slew of other symptoms, not only due to what’s going on in there, but because I’m unable to eat at all.  An empty stomach/low blood sugar intensifies everything  (is it that way for anyone else? I’d assume so).  I also turn into an infant and get really cranky. 🙂  A GI has told me that I’ve got it so bad due to Gastroparesis.  A common medication for that is Reglan, but the side effects can include some serious and permanent neurological dysfunctions.  No thanks, I’m already blonde enough as it is.   I tried Domperidone, but experienced high progesterone levels, and at 28 years old, I wasn’t willing to compromise my reproductive system.  It is a lot better than it’s been before.  I actually went about 8 months without it.   Again, this occurred as I began to engage in low resistance training and supplementing, etc.   I’m Italian and for my entire life, I haven’t been able to go without THAT food.  Food (tomatoes) high in acid.  For whatever reason, anything tomato rarely does it for me.  It’s usually high fat foods (fried foods, ice cream, chocolate) that upset me most.  Then, as I said, some days I can wake up, drink water, and there it is.  I plan to continue research on it and am looking into going up to JVille to visit the Mayo Clinic and see what suggestions they offer up.  

I got a computer today.  I normally use a Mac, but some software I want to get to help the site is not compatible.  I could use something like Parallels, but I don’t want to do all that switching back and forth, especially when the programs I plan to use on the PC are pretty intense.  I found a nice little Asus at Best Buy.  I hate PCs so it wasn’t as fun as it normally would be to make that kind of purchase (and it’s usually a LOT of fun for me, since technology might be my favorite thing in the world next to animals).  I can’t complain, though, because it’ll serve it’s purpose and lately, I eat/sleep/walk this website and I’m enjoying that!  I’m trying to keep ProjectFibro decently simple, which might be my largest challenge, as my mind tends to spin in a thousand directions.  

And that’s that.   As I go back and read some of the pages, I have noticed grammatical errors.  I’ll be working on that maybe more towards the time I’ve got all the main sections filled out.  Sorry bout it!